Martin St. Louis is mere weeks away from celebrating his 40th birthday and shortly after that his current contract with the New York Rangers will expire. He’s not sure if another deal is in the cards.

“I’m going to get a chance to reflect and think about it and go from there,” St. Louis said, per The Record.

St. Louis talked to coach Alain Vigneault and assistant GM Jeff Gorton for his exit interview and conveyed to them his desire to think about his future before moving forward. Vigneault thinks that’s a good idea for all sides as the Rangers can use that time to get better sense of what they can offer St. Louis monetarily.

The Rangers have around $60.5 million tied to 15 players and still have to re-sign restricted free agents Derek Stepan and Carl Hagelin. So while the Rangers like what St. Louis brings to the table, they might not be able to offer him much.

Of course, St. Louis could potentially play elsewhere, but part of his motivation for demanding a trade to the Rangers specifically was to be closer to his family. It’s not clear how willing he would be to move in order to extend his NHL career.

St. Louis had 21 goals and 52 points in 74 contests this season. He also recorded a goal and seven points in 19 playoff games.

Walcott finished his second season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this year with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. The 5-foot-11, 165-pound, blue liner had seven goals and 41 points in 54 regular season games.

The 21-year-old also appeared in one American Hockey League game with the Hartford Wolf Pack registering a minus-1 rating.

Walcott was originally the Rangers fifth round selection (140th overall) in 2014.

PHT’s Morning Skate takes a look around the world of hockey to see what’s happening and what we’ll be talking about around the NHL world and beyond.

This story about former NHL player Mathias Tjärnqvist taking a teenage girl with Downs Syndrome to her prom in Sweden will “win a Nobel Prize for kindness” and maybe melt your heart a bit. (The Local by way of Puck Daddy)

Five goalies who won Stanley Cups even if their performance may have just rated as “OK.” Cam Ward might have a reasonable beef with being on this list … (The Hockey News)

BarDown shares two different videos of young hockey players performing impressive feats. (Example 1 and 2)

Hossa as much as any Hawk gives it all he’s got. You can see the determination in his game. But the reality is that after 17 seasons in the NHL, he is challenged more than most to maintain his level of impact as the minutes pile up.

To be sure, Hossa remains a very effective player. He has 11 points in 15 playoff games, and his possession stats are among the best on the Blackhawks. But his age is a factor, whether fans like it or not. It’s the same thing in Boston with Zdeno Chara and Detroit with Pavel Datsyuk.

Hossa may not get the accolades those two do, possibly because so much attention is given to teammates Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith. But he’s been vitally important in the Blackhawks’ two championship runs in the last five years. There aren’t many, if any, wingers who play such a strong two-way game.

But for the Blackhawks to remain contenders over the next few years, it’ll be up to youngsters like Teuvo Teravainen and Artemi Panarin to step up and offset the decline in Hossa’s play — a decline that happens to even the greatest players as they get older.

After the Rangers’ 2-1 victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final, the question of if New York could keep this up was raised. To that point the Rangers had been averaging just two goals per game and while they had been getting results with that minimal offensive output, there hasn’t been a team dating back to 1998 that’s won the Stanley Cup with an offense that anemic.

The three contests that have followed have been wild and a complete deviation from the type of games that we saw in the Rangers’ first two rounds. The sheer number of offensive weapons at the Lightning’s disposal has made them hard for the Rangers to contain even after their strong showings against Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins and Alex Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals. However, the Rangers were able to nearly match the Lightning blow-for-blow in Game 3 and then in Game 4 everything worked out for New York in a 5-1 victory.

The fact that the Rangers are scoring is big by itself, but it’s the players that stepped up that has to be particularly encouraging for them. Rick Nash and Martin St. Louis are star forwards, but they haven’t been major factors offensively in the playoffs. That changed in Game 4 when they combined for three goals and four points.

That has to be a relief for both of them.

“The games keep piling on, you get chances — of course you’re pressing,” said St. Louis, per the Tampa Bay Times. “The guys who tell you they don’t press, they’re lying.”

He also admitted that ended a goal drought gives him “a second wind,” per Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston.

The question now is if Nash and St. Louis can build off of Friday’s strong showing. If they can, then Tampa Bay will have a tough time winning this series. However, the Lightning remain a dangerous team and if two of the Rangers’ top forwards immediately go cold again, then that could be a serious problem for New York.